UK Screenshots for Pre BR Blue. High resolution warning.

Southern Railway C8 class, number 291. Causton Road station, circa 1933-1934.



The location is of course fictional, but while having a look through some coaches I could not resist to put a train together and take a screenshot to have a go with!

(For those who prefer a version without filters: http://i.imgur.com/ZzKWHRf.jpg )

Border Counties Railway Bellingham North Tyne

I have been building Bellingham township on the Border Counties Railway, part of my small BCR Reedsmouth and Bellingham route. An early 1950s Saturday morning and the town is sleeping off a heavy Friday night as the morning train from Hawick to Newcastle pulls in behind a standard 3MT 2-6-0.

Passing the livestock auction mart. There was space for a siding but neither the NBR nor LNER laid one in to the mart.



The view from the main street as the train passes by.



A motorcyclist approaches the bridge in to the town centre, oblivious to the train as it slows for the station stop.



The view of the town from the north east.

Darlington Heavy Industry

Some shots of trains to the north of Darlington showing a representation of the heavy industry that could be found occupying the lineside in the days of steam. Coal smoke, ash, the smells of coal gas, the thunder of forge hammers, the steel presses, wisps of steam, the glow of furnaces. All now consigned to history. The main impression you now get coming out of Darlington and heading north on the ECML is that there is a lot of vegetation.



Above, a J21 0-6-0 heads north with a stopping passenger train prior to WWII. Behind it is the Albert Hill estate with its iron foundries and iron works producing finished heavy steel products for Thomas SUmmerson & Sons, a railway siding manufacturer.



Above the J21 passes the northern end of the Albert Hill estate just before it crosses the River Skerne bridge.



Above, a K3 2-6-0 heads south past the Albert Hill estate on the Up ECML. On the locomotives' left side is the Darlington Wire Mill, which lay to the east side of the ECML south of the River Skerne. Robert Stepehenson's Springfield Locomotive works stood to the east of the ECML on the north side of the River Skerne.



Above, the K3 crosses the Stockton & Darlington crossing on its way south. Behind it can be seen the foundry occupying the site just to the north of the Haughton Park Road bridge. Search for Albert Hill Darlington Foundry to find the graces guide site about the heavy industry to be found in Darlington.

Austerity 2-8-0 at Auckland Junction 1953

One of the models I have is the late Andi06's ex-WD Austerity 2-8-0 and I decided to use it to haul the daily weekday 07:25 Tyne Dock to Croft Junction yard Class H loose-coupled freight. Here it takes the Durham line at Auckland Junction around 08:15. The 1953 Working Timetable for the North East Operating Area by WTTReprint shows the train routing via Penshaw, Auckland Junction, Durham, Relly Mill, Bishop Auckland and Parkgate Junction at Darlington rather than proceeding via the Leamside route to Ferryhill. ETA at Croft junction yard is 11:15. Daily, several Up Class H freights originating in the Tyneside district and bound for Croft Junction yard left the ECML at Relly Mill, using the Bishop Auckland route and rejoining the ECML at Parkgate, but the WTT shows none utilising the Bishop Auckland route in the down direction.



The 1953 WTT shows no balancing down freight working between Croft Junction Yard and Tyne Dock, so I am assuming that the Up service would carry loaded wagons with imported items such as timber, grain and crated items from Scadinavia or the Baltic, whilst Tyne Dock possibly received empty wagons via Gateshead Park Lane and Sunderland South Dock, both of which had several daily workings from Croft Junction Yard. What is not clear is how the Tyne Dock locomotive would have returned to her home shed. Perhaps one of the Down Class H workings to Gateshead Park Lane sidings or Sunderland South Dock would get her part of the way back.

British Railways opening the modern hump marshalling yards at Tyne Yard and Tees Yard in the mid-1960s would completely change freight traffic operations in north east England.

An ex-NER J27 0-6-0 waits with a train of empty coal hoppers in the siding waiting for her turn to resume her journey to the Sherburn or Tursdale area. Mineral trains on the NER, LNER, and the BR NE Region were worked as required.

Metrovick Condor at Carlisle

The Metrovick Co-Bo Type 2 Diesel (later Class 28) were one of the unsuccessful types of early BR diesel locomotives. Their Crossley engines were unreliable. They were associated with the BR CONDOR (Container Door to Door) service between Hendon in London and Gushetfaulds in Glasgow. Starting in early 1959 it was timed to depart Hendon yard at 19:23 hrs (Fridays and Saturdays Excepted) the train would run non-stop for 301 miles via Leicester, Sheffield, Leeds, Settle and Carlisle with 27 container wagons behind two Metrovicks. The footplate crew would change at Carlisle Citadel station during the early hours. By the autumn the traffic department realised the Condor would not sustain 27 wagons grossing 550 tons and a single Metrovick was rostered with a load that was virtually halved.

Here, Sunday night's 19:23 departure from Hendon is severely delayed and is actually arriving at Carlisle from the south around 7 a.m. A single metrovick hauls a load of 14 wagons. The route is the Settle & Carlisle and the loco is kemplen's from the DLS.

borderreiver said:

The Metrovick Co-Bo Type 2 Diesel (later Class 28) were one of the unsuccessful types of early BR diesel locomotives. Their Crossley engines were unreliable. They were associated with the BR CONDOR (Container Door to Door) service between Hendon in London and Gushetfaulds in Glasgow. Starting in early 1959 it was timed to depart Hendon yard at 19:23 hrs (Fridays and Saturdays Excepted) the train would run non-stop for 301 miles via Leicester, Sheffield, Leeds, Settle and Carlisle with 27 container wagons behind two Metrovicks. The footplate crew would change at Carlisle Citadel station during the early hours. By the autumn the traffic department realised the Condor would not sustain 27 wagons grossing 550 tons and a single Metrovick was rostered with a load that was virtually halved.

Here, Sunday night's 19:23 departure from Hendon is severely delayed and is actually arriving at Carlisle from the south around 7 a.m. A single metrovick hauls a load of 14 wagons. The route is the Settle & Carlisle and the loco is kemplen's from the DLS.

Click to expand...

I won't ask what year this screenshot takes place, but since there is only one Co-Bo, I can safely assume it takes place after 1959.

"I won't ask what year this screenshot takes place, but since there is only one Co-Bo, I can safely assume it takes place after 1959." - HHoldenaz, the session date is October 1959. I would have to do more research to try and find out how late the shot would be a valid one. How often they were replaced on the service as their engine troubles began to seriously impact on availability. They were an unusual beast.

I think the Condor ran on "double" container conflats.

Hi peterwhite. I am constrained to what is on the DLS. However, in an article on vacuum braked container services: "The all-container express Condor (container-door-to-door) service was introduced in early 1959, offering collection and next day delivery of railway owned containers. This service ran between London and Glasgow and initially the original make up was about twenty seven wagons, all standard four wheeled vacuum braked container flats of the type offered by Peco. The rolling stock was rated to travel at up to 75 mph, the brake van was always a long wheelbase type and the rake was usually hauled by a pair of Metro-Vic Co-Bo locomotives. By the end of the year the rake was reduced to thirteen wagons hauled by a single Co-Bo locomotive. In subsequent years there were occasionally non-container wagons included in the rake. As well as the standard container flat wagons this service featured modified plate wagon chassis coded Conflat P to carry one of each of the old wooden bodied A and B type containers. By the early 1960s there were also some converted 52 foot bogie plate wagons, these had their body removed (including the floor) and fitting added to secure the containers. Although marketed as an 'all container' service some non container wagons were also included in both Condor and the later Speedfreight trains, I have seen a photograph showing two 5 plank wagons loaded with bricks and some old style oil tanks similar to the Peco ten foot wheelbase chassis models heading the rake on a Condor service. The Condor service was withdrawn in 1964, the ex plate wagons were not then used for general container traffic as the future lay with more modern container designs." - http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/7-fops/fo-vbcont.htm

There is a drawing of a Conflat P on the page http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/5-unit/unitload1.htm

So, if I stick with "October 1959" I think that I can stand by the use of the older type 4 wheel conflats. I have refrained from including a 5-plank wagons and I have no modified plate wagon chassis as Conflat P (from the DLS or payware). I remain open to other sources contradicting the above quote since the article is the work of one author and authors have been known to be wrong!

A google search finds some photographs, one of which is a reasonable size colour shot, taken on testing with the dynamometer car, probably during 1958 (since the Co-Bo metrovicks did not enter service before July 1958 and the earliest date for two in service was September 1958). It is by Colin Marsden and posted on traintesting.com http://www.traintesting.com/images/Condor leaving Hendon 1957 CJM.jpg

I believe the LMS Stove R was tagged onto the rear as a brake. Regular Conflats suffice but as you say, the modified ‘Conflat P’ wagon was used as a then all-new high speed container flat, 27 of these flats all of which accomodated one A and one B-type container. But by 1960 the rake was halved and so was the motive power.

Hi evertrainz. The articles I have read mention autumn 59 for the drop to single haulage with a reduced rake and the quote in my previous post rearked that the conflat P was in use from "the early 60s". With the service ceasing in 1964 it is unclear wheter the Conflat P appeared in 1960, 1961 or 1962. That assumes 1963 and 1964 count as "mid 1960s", which can be debated! DerbySulzers has a shot clearly showing the Conflat Ps behind a Sulzer type 2 but frustratingly the author is clear they don't know the date.

Judith Edge Kits has a Conflat P model kit. Their page says the 22T Plate wagon conversions were done during 1959. Nice shot of an empty wagon. I must keep that if commissioning a Conflat P. Might also be a useful reference for the chassis of the 52ft bogie plate conversion which referred to removing the floor. http://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/judithedge/kit/293

Hi evertrainz. a shot of a stove R would be intruiging to see. I can imagine it being pressed in to service if the regular brake van was failed and no other was readily to hand. It reminds me that "nothing is new under the sun". The pre-grouping N.E.R. took several six-wheel luggage vans which they had removed from passenger train services and allocated them to the goods department for use as brake vans on braked freight trains. This saved them money on building new 20T brake vans fitted with automatic train brake.

Hi petrwhite. I am going to get that bogie double conflat from the DLS. Thanks for the heads-up. I might just commission a conflat P from barn700 along with the condor A and B containers. I'd have to do a lot more research before commissioning a converted 52ft bogie wagon. It might look good on the T:ANE S&C though it might end up a bit like sawing coffee table legs to make them level. The weak point might then be the build 2.8 Metrovick!

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]I think that my screenshots are likely to be definitely tied to the "October 1959" point in time. this comes from information on the Metrovicks rather then the Condor directly: - "By early 1960, the Class, having suffered frequent mechanical failures, and just 3 of the original 20 were available for traffic. This was partly as a result of the steeply graded inclines along the routes they worked. The locomotives were frequently stopped at Ais Gill, Grayrigg, Shap and Beattock." and "[/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]Regulations specified that if one of the pair was found to be defective on shed, the train was to be steam hauled by a pair of Stanier "Black 5" 4-6-0s; but if one of the diesels failed en-route, it was okay to leave the other one in place and couple a steam locomotive inside it to replace the failed diesel." - this latter referring to the early 1959 operation if two Metrovicks are being referred to. - [/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular]The Co-Bo's in Service at http://nicwhe8.freehostia.com/d5705/history/history.html

By early 1960 with only a 15% serviceability level it must have been a challenge to consistently roster a Metrovick to the Condor service. In 1959 the Black 5 was the subsitute of choice but it is not clear if by 1960 whether that was the same operational substitute. Also, information from brdatabase.info shows that until January 1960 all twenty were officially allocated to 17A Derby shed. Only from January 1960 do nos D5712-19 get allocated to 14A Cricklewood East shed which is around the time that the appalling availibility was revealing itself. Cricklewood East being the closest shed to Hendon.

[/FONT]

borderreiver said:

"I won't ask what year this screenshot takes place, but since there is only one Co-Bo, I can safely assume it takes place after 1959." - HHoldenaz, the session date is October 1959. I would have to do more research to try and find out how late the shot would be a valid one. How often they were replaced on the service as their engine troubles began to seriously impact on availability. They were an unusual beast.

Click to expand...

I actually did look that up, but the weather didn't really look like fall to me in that shot.

I think the "lack of fall" is a consequence of me taking the shot in TS12 on my laptop with "nary a speedtreez item" in sight. The time is 07:00 in the environment setting but Trainz appears to have no geographic variation in times of sunrise and sunset. The UK can also be widely variable. This afternoon, September 29 in the UK the sun is splitting the trees with brilliant green fields, blue skies and a smattering of cumulus clouds, just as bright as if it was 4 p.m. on June 29th, July 29th, or even August 29th, yet this morning it was gloomy, grey and raining. There is some leaf fall along the route I follow on my mountain bike but not in any great quantity just yet.

The only pictures online of the Conflat P I know of are from the video of the making of the painting Night Freight by Terence Cuneo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E6s3cnRmwM

I found this online: - http://www.derbysulzers.com/5038condorbw.jpg - it shows at decent resolution the CONFLAT P

borderreiver said:

I found this online: - http://www.derbysulzers.com/5038condorbw.jpg - it shows at decent resolution the CONFLAT P

Click to expand...

Also it's worth noting that the Arrow 'door to door' emblem did not appear until I believe 1963 or 4. Check your PMs.